Would depend on the guaranteed money. I doubt he lasts 5 years in Minnesota.

And he made it clear during the season that he didn't want to be here and that he was going where the most money was. Him going to a division rival, who aren't a legitimate SB contender, didn't really surprise me at all.

Signed Benson last year, pretty much would be the exact same situation except with a superior but less reliable RB.

I certainly wouldn't mind Bradshaw in on a one or two year, sub 5 mil guaranteed deal. He has been a very good runner and a superb 3rd down back for several years and really hasn't missed a TON of time even with his injury bug.

He's definitely a step up from Starks, Green or Benson and a much different back than Harris (and definitely a step up from Harris as a 3rd down guy.)

We'll see. If we have any competition, I agree it won't happen.

On a separate note, this is going to be an interesting year for Finley. I feel like we might go back to the "let's feed him the ball and see if he goes beast" project of a couple years ago. McCarthy says they're coming up with a more focused plan on how to use him, which sounds great to me.

Let's not forget; he's 25 years old and has had some extended flashes of being unstoppable. He's a rare size/speed combination and there have been stretches where his chemistry with Rodgers has been the best of any receiver. He has frustrated us to no end these last two years, but if he goes back to the last 8 games of 2009 and pre-injury 2010 I think we'll all love him to death again.

And frankly, we need that because Jennings was our go-to guy when things were tough. He was Rodgers safety valve. Someone needs to emerge as that guy.

I'm somewhat surprised we haven't resigned Brad Jones. And I'm annoyed we worked out a restructure with Hawk, unless it's to move down to a backup. He's so mediocre, it's painful. I still remember when we drafted him and people were calling him the next coming of Butkus and a once in a generation linebacker. HE IS SO PAINFULLY MEDIOCRE.

Also, I could care less about Crabtree going elsewhere. Yeah, he had some cool moments last year; yeah, any other medicore backup TE would have made the same plays in the same situations. Quarless has more potential if he returns from injury well, and should we draft a TE they also instantly have more potential than Crabtree.

Final note; Colts, really? 4 mil a year for Walden? THANK YOU! IF ONLY SOMEONE HAD BIT THAT WAY ON JARRETT BUSH 3 YEARS AGO.

On a separate note, this is going to be an interesting year for Finley. I feel like we might go back to the "let's feed him the ball and see if he goes beast" project of a couple years ago. McCarthy says they're coming up with a more focused plan on how to use him, which sounds great to me.

Let's not forget; he's 25 years old and has had some extended flashes of being unstoppable. He's a rare size/speed combination and there have been stretches where his chemistry with Rodgers has been the best of any receiver. He has frustrated us to no end these last two years, but if he goes back to the last 8 games of 2009 and pre-injury 2010 I think we'll all love him to death again.

Well, the problem is J-Mike does not have the same speed that made him dangerous. He's just a guy now IMO.
He gets no separation. He's barely open and the passes have to be perfect... forces a lot of tough catches.... causes more drops than anyone wants.

If he had the same speed as 2009 I would be all for locking him up. I used to love him, hence the name.

But I don't see anything close to the same J-Mike as before.
And we all know he has plenty of drops.

I don't know if he can get that speed back... it's not age. It's the knee.... can it get back?

Well, the problem is J-Mike does not have the same speed that made him dangerous. He's just a guy now IMO.
He gets no separation. He's barely open and the passes have to be perfect... forces a lot of tough catches.... causes more drops than anyone wants.

If he had the same speed as 2009 I would be all for locking him up. I used to love him, hence the name.

But I don't see anything close to the same J-Mike as before.
And we all know he has plenty of drops.

I don't know if he can get that speed back... it's not age. It's the knee.... can it get back?

Good point, indeed. I guess I'm trying to look on the bright side of losing Jennings, who has always been one of my favorite players and someone I said we couldn't afford to lose.

It'll be interesting to see how our offense functions this year. Unless we draft a back in the first couple of rounds, I don't see our running game getting significantly better. Harris might give us a mildly okay option and, should we sign Bradshaw, that'd give us a decent option.. but nothing that will pull opponents out of a cover 2. Who is going to break the cover 2 for us? It won't be Nelson or Jones. Cobb could be the guy, which is probably our most likely avenue. If Finley flashes to 2009 form he could be that guy.

But I don't think we're a lock to be a juggernaut offense this year with Jennings out. I thought we struggled mightily on offense last year while he was injured.

Combine that with our question marks on defense and I feel like this team has the most question marks since the first year we moved to a 3-4. Will our young corners and safeties progress or regress? Will anyone in our front seven besides Matthews turn into a pro-bowl type player? Raji is overrated, speaking of guys who just aren't the same. Will our offensive line gel? Will Rodgers get over his habit of holding the ball too long? Will we have a legit running game? Who gets injured this year?

The best case scenario is probably us bringing in a playmaker on offense in the first two rounds, whether that be a running back or tight end or wide receiver, and a splash play guy for the front seven on defense (or Nick Perry coming back with a vengeance.)

Maybe if Eifert drops to us in the first we snag him and start running some two tight end looks, ala the patriots. That could be very effective and a great way to phase out Finley and work in a running game. Or maybe we get a guy like Keenan Allen and really work the spread.

I feel like we need a splash offensive player from this draft and either Nick Perry to become one or also a defensive splash play guy from the draft for us to really reach a super bowl caliber this year. There's hope, but we've only gotten worse so far in free agency; how do we get better?

Hawk's new numbers are in and a vast improvement, about $3 mil less a year, but still sickening for what is effectively a slightly above average backup quality player. The rough numbers give an average yearly on his old contract at $6.75 mil per year to $3.3 mil per year on the new. He's also on the veteran's minimum for base salary, a reduction of about $5 mil per year, although I'm not entirely sure how that factors in but fairly certain it removes most salary cap ramifications should we cut him next year.

I was concerned when it was reported the cut was minor, so this is definitely good news. We are really in fantastic cap shape now and won't have any trouble extending Clay or Rodgers with massive contracts, even Raji if we decide to do so, and still have money to work with next year (you know, for our annual free agent spending spree.)

The cons? We lost two of our top five players from the last 5 years to accomplish it (Woodson and Jennings.) So that kinda sucks.

Also a report we're interested in Michael Huff. Said report also claims other teams to be interested, however, which makes our interest really irrelevant. That said, for the sake of argument, I would like the move of signing him to a 2 year deal under 3 mil a year. He's probably better than either of our safeties right now and would let us develop McMillian instead of jumping on board a new safety early in the draft this year.

Mark Murphy re-iterated that an extension for Rodgers is the key priority before the start of the next season. The lack of activity in free agency and the contract re-structuring, even with plenty of cap space, suggests that the team is trying to get creative to fit his contract in without completely wiping out any cap flexibility.

“I’m not going to say he helped me (decide), but he gave me insight on his experience over at the Vikings organization, with that team,” Jennings said. “Basically I knew he was a guy I could call and he would should me straight. He would give the pros, the cons, and he wouldn’t sugarcoat anything, and he’d tell me exactly what I wanted to hear and maybe what I didn’t want to hear. That’s exactly what he did.”

Per Schefter (I know, he's the little midget who tweeted that we had signed Steven Jackson, then deleted it) reports the Packers are about to announce we've added 4 years/$100 million onto Rodgers current deal.

Man, I was just thinking about it and doesn't it SUCK how far we've fallen since winning the Super Bowl? Yes, I realize that's a rich complaining about being slightly less rich.. but still. We looked in SUCH great shape after that win and now we've got so many questions, almost none of which we really foresaw.

Our team looked so complete. Our defense was brutal and forcing turnovers and scoring TDs and our offense looked just rounding into form with even more hope with Finley coming back.

Since then we've lost two of our top 4 defensive players (Collins and Jenkins) and have struggled mightily to replace both.

Rodgers has looked mighty in the regular season (moreso in 2011) but really has been medicore in the playoffs, compared to the second coming of Montana in his first 5 playoff games.

The running game we had with Grant the years before and with Starks in the super bowl run disappeared. The hope that Starks would be legit died.

I feel like our team has been badly affected by a lack of continuity, and I'm worried losing Jennings will have that same effect this year.

I get that we're still only a couple pieces off, basically a couple decent starters and one pro bowl type guy, from being the class of the NFL again but it bums me out that bad luck and some questionable decisions really threw away that great team we had built.

Losing Collins to that freak injury is still the worst thing that's happened in a while for us. He was such an underrated and fantastic player who was really just in his prime.

It's the NFL. You don't jut win a Superbowl and stay the best team in the league for the next 10 years. It just doesn't work like that. And even if you are the best team for 10 years, it doesn't guarantee you are going to win a Superbowl every year. We could've won it last year and we could've won it the year before, unfortunately it didn't happen, but that doesn't mean we're in some crisis.

Man, I was just thinking about it and doesn't it SUCK how far we've fallen since winning the Super Bowl?

Since then we've lost 2 of our top 4 defensive players (Collins and Jenkins) and have struggled mightily to replace both.

Losing Collins to that freak injury is still the worst thing that's happened in a while for us. He was such an underrated and fantastic player who was really just in his prime.

You're right on the money there.... not just 2 of our top 4 defensive players from then... Woodson was one of our best 3 defensive players thru that 2010 season.
The difference was night & day in that Super Bowl when he was in there, and when he was out after broke his collar bone.
So we let the pass rush go up front in Jenkins, and basically lost Collins and that Woodson..... it's impssoble to replace difference-makers like that.

I'm still bitter as hell about what happened to Nick. He was no head-hunter like Goldson and Reed.
How does a RB hurdling over a sitting down Collins, end Nick's phucking career? That's bullschit. And I still hold a grudge over Hawk for being nowher in sight on that swing pass to Jonathon Stewart. Our defense that game in Carolina was pathetic.

Quote:

Originally Posted by BloodBrother

Man, I hope they don't bring in Bradshaw. Just draft a RB within the first 3 rds and roll with a committee of that and DuJuan Harris.

I agree.
I think they bring back Benson, pair him with DuJuan.
And they draft a BPA sometime between rounds 3 & 7, who then competes with Green & Starks for the #3 RB. They WANT Green to emerge.... but aside from how he looked vs Minny one game last year, we've not seen that.

It's the NFL. You don't jut win a Superbowl and stay the best team in the league for the next 10 years. It just doesn't work like that. And even if you are the best team for 10 years, it doesn't guarantee you are going to win a Superbowl every year. We could've won it last year and we could've won it the year before, unfortunately it didn't happen, but that doesn't mean we're in some crisis.

I don't think anyone will argue this point. The discouraging part, at least for me, is that we have a special quarterback in the prime of his career and the team seems to be moving backwards instead of forward. Since the Super Bowl victory, the only playoff win we have is against the Joe Webb led Vikings and the team has looked terrible in both defeats to end the season, Giants at Lambeau and in San Francisco.

Now you take the team we had to end last year and remove Jennings, Woodson, Walden, Crabtree and Brad Jones, and there's enough re-tooling that needs to occur to put this team in a position to be a legitimate threat for a championship.

I don't think anyone will argue this point. The discouraging part, at least for me, is that we have a special quarterback in the prime of his career and the team seems to be moving backwards instead of forward. Since the Super Bowl victory, the only playoff win we have is against the Joe Webb led Vikings and the team has looked terrible in both defeats to end the season, Giants at Lambeau and in San Francisco.

Now you take the team we had to end last year and remove Jennings, Woodson, Walden, Crabtree and Brad Jones, and there's enough re-tooling that needs to occur to put this team in a position to be a legitimate threat for a championship.

Jennings is probably the only player from that list that we will actually miss. Woodson wasn't playing well anyway, Walden sucks, Crabtree was a backup tight end and Brad Jones would be our 4th ILB assuming everyone is healthy. And even then we played a lot of last season without Jennings because of injury. All of that is just roster turnover that you would expect to happen every season.